How a govt policy can change the lives of millions of Singaporeans

 Can Singaporeans understand how the Beverage Container Return Scheme can affect their lives, their behaviour, their movement, their life style and the amount of time they have to spend on the scheme?

The BCRS is a great scheme to save Gaia, environmentally friendly and helps to inculcate in Singaporeans a sense of responsibility towards saving mother earth, to cut down on the usage and wastage of plastics and aluminums, save the energy to make them and a caring habit in what we do and consume. 

The scheme involved the compulsory payment for the plastic bottles or metal cans by the consumers. The govt, by law, tangkap your money first to pay for the bottles and metal cans. No buts, Singapore's version of democracy, the govt volunteers for you to pay first. The amount is about 10c or 20c per bottle or metal can. For example, a 6 pack beer would require an advanced payment of $1. The cans then be redeemed at the BCRS vending machines when one returns them. Not sure if one will get back the full $1. For those who are rich enough, lazy enough, did not bother about claiming back the $1, would this be called a tax, a donation, or an additional cost to the price of the beer? Most Singaporeans are rich enough, no need to be millionaires, to forgo the additional cost/tax on their drinks. So it is plain extra money being taken from the local consumers.

Many obedient and law abiding Singaporeans, Singaporeans are very cooperative, when govt says do, they just do as told. Many are now forming queues at the vending machines to return the bottles and cans. And many are very happy for various reasons. Millions of plastic bottles and metal containers have been returned by millions of Singaporeans and be rewarded or refunded for the bottles and cans. Just hope they wash the bottles and cans or else ants, cockroaches or pests may make the machines their homes. The people are supposed to wash and clean the bottles and containers before returning.

Can one appreciate the number of trips needed to return these bottles and containers by say 50% of the Singaporeans, ie 3m heads, once a week or 52 times a year, over 10 years, 50 years etc etc? Some have children or the whole family tagging along. How would this scheme affect or change the pattern of lives of Singaporeans? 

I just saw a foreign worker with a big sack, not paper bag, of plastic bottles and cans. Quite a rewarding trip. And as reported, many seniors are very happy and enjoying collecting plastic bottles and metal cans to return them at the vending machines. This could become a big social event or daily happening to their lives.

My wife just asked me if I am going to be a karung guni operator, collecting empty beer cans instead of throwing them away? She said I am inviting many drunk visitors to our home. I wondered what was she saying. She pointed to a cockroach wobbly around, and a lizard lying upside down on the floor, still snoozing, fallen from the ceiling, all drunk after sipping the leftover beer in the cans. Oops, I must make it a point to wash the cans clean and store them neatly in a corner to prevent these from happening.  And remember to make a trip to the vending machine when enough clean and sparkling beer cans accumulated.

The vending machines are going to be a must visit place for many Singaporeans, more important than a place of worship or the kopitiams. It will become a part of the life of Singaporeans, locals, residents. It could be turned into gossip corners with some chairs provided, like citizens corners.

Other than those seniors that may find it profitable as a past time, to collect cans and bottles, the lives of many ordinary Singaporeans will revolve around cleaning and managing empty bottles and cans, storing them and returning them, like visiting their parents, part and parcel of life in this richest city state in the world. A new industry may spring up from it, selling beautiful brushes, storage boxes or plastic bags for the bottles and cans, redesigning the home with a special place for storing them. More enterprising seniors or foreign workers may go around housing estates to collect bottles and cans, a more rewarding hobby, or a revival of the karung guni trade. The new karung guni operators will be the Ah mahs and Ah kongs, and not leaving the foreign workers out.

Someone just suggested a more profitable and meaningful idea, collecting cardboards and returning them in a similar scheme. Just leave it to the ingenuity of Singaporeans with their get rich schemes. No need to be top STEM graduates to invent apps, AIs and high end chips, robotics or EVs. Just think about how to save a few cents here and there, in aggregate can become very big sums. The BCRS is the second best scheme after the scheme for paying 5c for plastic bags in supermarkets that used to come free. The next big scheme will be paying for cardboards and then redeem them from vending machines. Problem, where to put these large machines unless they can install grinding machines in them.

How much more would these two schemes cost to the Singaporeans that have to pay more without going for refund? Be frightened, be very frightened when someone wants to help. Oops, oops.